Despite the fact that “smoking is harmful to your health”, the number of smokers worldwide is up to 1 billion, and the number is increasing every year. In 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded a global Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. According to the statistical data from WHO, about 4.9 million people die of diseases caused by smoking each year. Although smoking may cause serious respiratory diseases and cancer, it remains extremely difficult for smokers to quit smoking.
The active ingredient in a cigarette or pipe is nicotine. During smoking, nicotine, along with tar aerosol droplets produced in the cigarette when it burns, enters a smoker's alveolus and is rapidly absorbed. After being absorbed into the blood of a smoker, nicotine then produces its effect on the receptors of the smoker's central nervous system, which makes the smoker relax and enjoy an inebriety similar to that produced by an exhilarant.
Nicotine is a kind of alkaloid with a low molecular weight and its half-life in blood is quite short. The major harmful substance in tobacco is tar, which is composed of thousands of ingredients, tens of which are carcinogenic substances. It has been proven that passive smoking can be more harmful to non-smokers than smoking is to the smoker.
Some cigarette and pipe substitutes containing only nicotine without tar have been proposed, many of them, such as the “nicotine patch,” “nicotine mouthwash,” “nicotine chewing gum,” “nicotine drinks” etc., are made of pure nicotine. Although these cigarette and pipe substitutes are free from tar, their major disadvantage is that an effective peak concentration of nicotine cannot be reached in the blood of a smoker due to slow absorption of the nicotine. In addition, these cigarette and pipe substitutes cannot satisfy the habitual smoking actions of a smoker, for example, the inhaling action and the physical manipulation of the cigarette or pipe itself.
Therefore, there remains a need to overcome one or more of the limitations in the above-described, existing art. The discussion of the background to the invention included herein is included to explain the context of the invention. This is not to be taken as an admission that any of the material referred to was published, known, or part of the common general knowledge at the priority date of the claims.
It will be recognized that some or all of the Figures are schematic representations for purposes of illustration and do not necessarily depict the actual relative sizes or locations of the elements shown. The Figures are provided for the purpose of illustrating one or more embodiments of the invention with the explicit understanding that they will not be used to limit the scope or the meaning of the claims.